Mock Election: The Baseball Hall of Fame Class of 2013

Mike Piazza was a near-unanimous choice in our mock Hall of Fame election.(AP)

The list of nominees for the Baseball Hall of Fame Class of 2013 is, for many reasons, one of the most polarizing lists of athletes ever constructed. Since the ballot was announced on Nov. 28, there has been plenty of debate here in the YESNetwork.com offices about those issues and who deserves to be called to the pantheon of the elite this year…and so, we decided to something about it.

BBWAA ballots for the Hall of Fame were due on Dec. 31, with the full class set to be announced on Jan. 9; in the interim, we gathered 10 members of the YESNetwork.com editorial team - including Jack Curry, who holds a vote as a member of the BBWAA and revealed his ballot here - and gave them a ballot, asking them to be a theoretical Hall of Fame voter with the same restrictions as true Hall voters (that being they can select up to 10 players).

With that, any player receiving 75 percent of the vote (eight or more) would be inducted into our Hall of Fame, with any player receiving 5 percent or more (in our case, at least one vote) eligible for “carryover” and anyone receiving no votes “dropped from future consideration.”

The result? Four of the 37 candidates for the Hall Class of 2013 make up the YESNetwork.com Hall of Fame class, and would theoretically join Veteran’s Committee selections Hank O’Day, Jacob Ruppert, and Deacon White (as well as Spink Award winner Paul Hagen and Frick Award winner Tom Cheek) on induction weekend. Of the remaining candidates, 14 more received at least one vote to stay on the 2014 ballot, with the other 19 (including Dale Murphy, the lone player in his final year of eligibility) dropped from consideration.

Much like many BBWAA voters, many of the individual voters here chose to keep their ballots anonymous, so we’ve only included the sum total of the votes here. And now, the results of our first YESNetwork.com Mock Hall of Fame Election: